Winton open to adding rallycross to Supercars round

Winton Motor Raceway would be open to the idea of adding rallycross to its Supercars support bill in the future.

The rural Victoria venue created a purpose built rallycross layout last year which has hosted rounds of the new RXAus.com.au Australian Rallycross Series.

The layout uses part of the traditional 3.0km layout in addition to gravel sections and a jump using the old service road that runs across Winton’s infield, between turns three and four.

Circuit owner Benalla Auto Club (BAC) is keen to investigate the prospect of including rallycross as a support act to its Supercars round.

The idea could see the category, which combines rallying and circuit racing, added to the end of the circuit racing schedule during the Winton SuperSprint.

Hockenheim ran DTM and FIA World Rallycross on the same weekend from 2015-2017

Touring car racing and rallycross have combined previously when Germany’s DTM series and the FIA World Rallycross Championship held dual events using two circuit layouts at Hockenheim from 2015-2017.

“We’ve done all sorts of creative things around events that if it makes sense, or if it’s going to highlight a class that wouldn’t normally get highlighted or whatever that be, why not?,” BAC CEO Chris Lewis-Williams told Speedcafe.com, when asked about the use of its rallycross circuit during its Supercars round.

“If we can do a deal with the rallycross guys and say ‘You’re going to be the last event at 5 o’clock and you’re going to be going into the dark, are you keen?’, why not?

“They want to grow their visibility.

“The way we run rallycross sees the cars rejoin out of the cut through, so all we’d have to do is move the tyre bundles and clean the track a bit into Turn 1.

“We did a thing at Wakefield Park which was drift racing and truck racing. The drift guys got to see a racing trucks, the racing truck guys got to see drift guys. That’s motorsport of all forms.

“You never say never. And I think we’ve shown we’re willing to think outside the box a little bit.”

RXAus director Justin Dowel is keen to work with Winton should the circuit wish to make a serious push to add rallycross to its Supercars support schedule.

“It is great that Winton would consider running rallycross on their Supercar event program and we would love to work with them should the pieces fall in to place,” Dowel told Speedcafe.com.

“The team at Winton have become great supporters of RXAus and their rallycross circuit has produced great racing each time we’ve been there.

“Our product is geared towards entertainment, with short, fast and exciting races which would be great for the fans that attend the Winton Supercar weekend.

“It would be great for our series to compete at such a high-profile event and showcase the growth of the sport in Australia.

“We would be confident of attracting a really strong field and putting on a great show should it happen.”